This Is The Life isn't a dramatic record, but herein lies its charm. Behind the faux Seventies cover, faux dog-eared around the edges, is a voice that sounds resignedly worldweary as Macdonald shimmies through lyrics such as the title track's chorus question of "where you gonna go/where you gonna sleep tonight?" and the futile dreams of A Wish For Something More.

There's an Americana tinge to her melodies that gives the album a hint of melancholy blues, faintly reminiscent of Jack White at his most sentimental (Mr Rock & Roll in particular has parallels with We're Going To Be Friends), of Johnny Cash if he'd been a pretty Glaswegian girl rather than the Man In Black. If you want to look to UK influences, listen for the ghost of Kirsty MacColl beneath a voice that's deeper than any teenager's has a right to be.

There are other bittersweet pop sensibilities buried here: a past featuring appearances by The Bluebells (one of the most underappreciated pop bands of all time, for those of you scratching your heads and asking "who?"), a desire to make music that sounds as poetic and romantic as Pete Doherty, with the same dark, doomed romance he feels hidden beneath riffs that have been kicked in the gut once too often. Listen to the creeping doom in those violin strings beneath the accusation, "Do you know who you are?/I don't think so/I don't think so" if you need proof.

This Is The Life is an insanely accomplished album for a girl barely out of school. The music is rich, full and dark. The lyrics are infused with a dark heart that pulls them back from the brink of twee naivety in such a wonderfully black way that you can't help but imagine what music she'll be capable of making when she's older, more jaded and has really had a her heart broken a few times.

The critics who've slammed her for the simplicity of lines such as Let's Start A Band's "When there's nothing left to do/Let's start a band" are missing the point - taking it too literally and reading the words without hearing the gut wrenching sadness in the song behind them. This is about the break-up of The Libertines, and if you've forgotten how that felt, there's a song here that will remind you. It felt like the end of the world, even for those of us who'd been there at the break-up of special bands time and time again. Like us, she knows that someone else will rise to take their place, but eventually they'll fall as well, won't they? She's putting herself into the firing line, standing up to be shot down.

It is in this approach that MacDonald's real skill lies. There's heartbreak in her tunes, but coupled with a shrug of the shoulders and an attempt to pick her self up even though life will knock her down again. She knows this. You know this. Music won't save the world, but it might just carry you through the night.

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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees